New Shoes
by 0WolfMoon0
Summary: When the Hogwarts rumor mill picks up that Loony Luna Lovegood has lost her signature converse, Hermione takes it upon herself to find the culprit. By her deductions, someone must have taken them. The question is who? Will Hermione ever find out? Written for round 6 of the QLFC, Keeper for the Kenmare Kestrels! Theme - lesser used genres - MYSTERY


New Shoes

Luna Lovegood was known throughout Ravenclaw tower as an early riser. First year, she was known to knock over the statue of Rowena that was in the common room, thus alerting her housemates to the fact that she was prone to waking at the ungodly hour of four in the morning, when only the house elves were awake.

She never minded the early rising. It was a habit she had gotten from her late mother when Luna was only a child. Now, it was one of two things that kept the girl connected with her mother. The second thing was her pair of red converse sneakers. Sure they were two sizes too big for the girl, and sure they had gone out of style in the UK at the time, but she wore them each day.

Everyone knew that Luna was an oddball, but only three people knew her shoes' connection to her mother. The rest just thought they were another of Loony's quirks. Therefore, when Luna awoke one morning during her second year to find them gone, she did not bother to search her dorm. She instead opted to dress as usual, only forgoing shoes and socks altogether. She wasn't worried

Two people only knew of the significance of Luna's shoes. Those people were Ginny Weasley and Marietta Edgecomb. Luna had told Ginny when the poor ginger had noticed how large they were on her classmate's feet the previous year after Charms class one day. Marietta found out by eavesdropping on Luna's explanation of her oversized shoes to Ginny. However, Marietta was harmless and wouldn't intentionally hurt a fly unless she deemed it necessary.

When Luna traipsed to the Great Hall without shoes, a few of the ghosts noticed and began gossiping. Shortly thereafter, several upperclassmen overheard and gossiped. Soon, the Hogwarts rumor mill was stewing over the loss of Loony's signature shoes.

"Gin, do you think someone took them?" Hermione asked Ginny as the two milled over the information at the Gryffindor table that morning, sparing the blonde girl two tables over a few glances.

"It is possible," Ginny said, chewing on her lower lip. "I mean, a few kids like to try and get a rise out of her sometimes... but they haven't tried taking her things last year."

Hermione fumed over the new information, seeing it as her chance to practice the techniques Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had only written about in his Sherlock Holmes stories. After the whole Chamber of Secrets mystery last year, Hermione became hooked on the novels and figuring out the culprit before the detective himself. She turned and grinned at Ginny. "We have a mystery on our hands, Watson!" she exclaimed. The poor ginger looked at her friend, completely and utterly confused.

"Hermione, have you got a fever or something?" Ginny asked, before holding up two fingers. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Seventeen," Hermione replied, rolling her eyes. "Now tell me, why would anyone take Luna's only known pair of shoes? You're her classmate after all, Gin."

Ginny shrugged, and replied, "The only good guess I would have is they like to pick on her. I mean, they call her Loony for goodness sake. The girl is truly harmless."

As Ginny spoke, Hermione nodded and jotted down notes on a spare bit of parchment that was lying about. "Alright, so no possible suspects because the victim has no known enemies..." she thought aloud with a frown.

"Melanie Grey in our class seems to pick on her worse than the others. Maybe ask her if she knows any plots?" Ginny suggested. Hermione jumped up with a smile, before marching toward the Ravenclaw table. Halfway there, she turned around and returned to Ginny.

"Which one is Melanie?" Hermione asked her ginger friend. Ginny giggled at Hermione's haste.

"Horn rimmed glasses and curly blonde hair," Ginny replied helpfully. Hermione smiled gratefully and made her way over to the girl. The girl turned around in her seat at Hermione's incessant tapping on her shoulder.

"What do you want?" the younger girl snapped at Hermione, clearly annoyed at the interruption to her meal.

"Pardon me for asking, but do you know if anyone perchance might have taken Luna's shoes this morning or last night?" Hermione asked, trying to remain neutral.

In response, Melanie scoffed, saying, "Loony is a hindrance and a prime example of the fact that not all Ravenclaw students are destined to be the next great thinkers. However, oh bushy haired one, nobody in our house would bother to break school rules and risk detention for the sake of trying to get a rise out of her." With her haughty explanation, Melanie swiftly turned back around and returned to her meal.

Dejected, Hermione returned to sit with Ginny. The ginger smirked at her friend. "Nothing, huh?" Ginny asked. Hermione shook her head, before pulling out her parchment again.

"I've ruled out any boys, because she only takes them off in her dorms, and it would appear first and second years are clean. I can't think of anyone outside of her year who even interacts with her though..." Hermione thought out loud. She then heard a snigger over her shoulder.

"Loony is a bit of a basket case, but most people would absolutely HATE to hurt her in our House," said Terry Boot from behind Hermione. Said girl whipped around to look at the impromptu Watson to her Holmes.

"Which means someone took them without knowing their value?" she questioned. Terry shrugged.

"Nobody knows why she has only one pair of shoes, we all just accept it as an oddity of hers. Oi, Kristina!" Terry said, calling to the Ravenclaw table. A younger girl, Hermione assumed her name was Kristina, bounded over.

"'Mione, this is my cousin, a lovely first year Ravenclaw girl. Have fun," he smirked before walking away. Hermione paled slightly, taking in the bubbly figure before her. Ginny rolled her eyes, ignoring the girl who was obviously spoiled and a little full of herself.

"What do you need?" Kristina asked, her tone coming across as haughty.

"Well, we were just wondering if anything seemed out of place in your dorm this morning," Hermione said smoothly.

Kristina shrugged. "The weirdest thing in our dorm this morning was a pair of penny loafers at the foot of Loony's bed," she said with a roll of her eyes.

"Don't call her that," growled Ginny, causing the other girl to quirk an eyebrow and walk away.

"Shoe exchange!" Hermione shouted. Ginny slapped a hand over her friend's mouth.

"Quit drawing attention to yourself, Hermione," Ginny muttered. At Hermione's nod, Ginny removed her hand.

"Obviously whoever it was just wanted to wear her shoes for the day, and wanted her to just wear theirs. And she must have told them why she only wears them, because otherwise they would have asked!" Hermione whispered to Ginny, thinking she had everything solved.

"Only two people know why she only wears those, Hermione, and you'd have to be really selfish to take them if you knew," Ginny said harshly.

Hermione's mood momentarily dampened, until she turned to her Watson. "Who knows, Ginny?" she asked with her pen poised.

"Me and Marietta, in your grade Ravenclaw," Ginny grumbled, picking up her bag and swinging it over her shoulder. Hermione glanced at her watch before doing the same, notes clutched firmly in hand.

"She's in my next class, so perfect!" Hermione chimed happily, skipping out into the entrance hall. Once she got there though, she froze.

Luna was standing on a ladder at the base of the stairs, trying to reach the bottom of the overhang. From that overhang hung her shoes by their laces, tied tightly in place to prevent the use of magic to retrieve the shoes without cutting the laces. On the overhang, someone had written "be more normal" right above the shoes themselves.

Hermione hung her head, dropping her notes. "Where did I go wrong?" she murmured.

Ginny patted her friend's shoulder. "Suspects lie, 'Mione," she replied. Hermione shook her head before dejectedly exiting the entrance hall to go to Herbology.

'No more mysteries for me,' thought Hermione. 'At least nothing that has to do with people... I'll take snakes over people any day...'


End file.
